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Topic: Where are my paternal ancestors? (Read 2081 times)

I too have a similar situation to yourself. Most of my Ancestry DNA matches come from my maternal side. Those that seem to come from my paternal side are very distant and when I have tried communicating with them to see where our trees link up, we can't seem to find common ancestors.

I guess DNA testing is still relatively new and the more people that do the test, the more likely it is for matches to start appearing on your paternal side. Although it is still clever, the results are not always accurate and they are always improving the science behind it.

If you would like to learn more about DNA Testing and genetics, I have just finished a fantastic book: 'The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy' by Blaine T Bettinger.It's a fantastic read and very informative! In it, it explains that your family tree and your DNA can often be two very different things altogether.

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I too have a similar situation to yourself. Most of my Ancestry DNA matches come from my maternal side. Those that seem to come from my paternal side are very distant and when I have tried communicating with them to see where our trees link up, we can't seem to find common ancestors.

I guess DNA testing is still relatively new and the more people that do the test, the more likely it is for matches to start appearing on your paternal side. Although it is still clever, the results are not always accurate and they are always improving the science behind it.

If you would like to learn more about DNA Testing and genetics, I have just finished a fantastic book: 'The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy' by Blaine T Bettinger.It's a fantastic read and very informative! In it, it explains that your family tree and your DNA can often be two very different things altogether.

Hope this helps,Chris

The whole subject is very new to me so the suggested book sounds a good idea for me.With me being a total newcomer to approaching genealogy through the eyes of DNA I suppose that I didn't know quite what to expect. The figure of matches sounded high to me but it perhaps wouldn't sound high to the more experienced. I wasn't naive enough to expect a 50/50 split in the findings but I did expect to spot at least one paternal link. The links point to two areas of my maternal tree and I can see the shared great grandparents and follow the family lines. At least this gives me comfort to confidently know that all of my many years of research were along the right path. Now I hope that the same goes for my paternal side too and perhaps more work will lead to some links. I hope so!

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I found a few connections with people on paternal side a first cousin A half cousin who came up as 3rd cousin match and a few 4th/5th cousins who we were able to link through names and good trees.family members who'd emigrated were more likely to do DNA tests .

Mother was adopted but we knew her mother had married and had a son ...

So I used the mutual match buttons .....only works well with second and third cousins So mutual matches of my known cousins (1st 2nd and 3rd) show up as being connected

My theory was to look for someone who DIDN'T show up on any matches but did have dna in common with me

Have you tried that ?

We were really lucky that a man who had the same grandma as myself took the test

he came up as second cousin because we have different grandfather's .his father never knew he had a half sister.

I Found descendants of the birth grandfather s ...father by using location match button and pin point particular towns where our ancestors lived

.none of the present generations have his surname thru generations more girls than boys ! But I did know some of his sister's married names

I.ve not found anyone with my father's surname in their direct line tree yet either But have found some 5th cousins with same surnames as his grandmithers so Know the women in my family were faithfyl !!

The family name is dying out in my branch.

I hope this makes sense ..I'm typing in the wee hours .

Happy hunting...

Have you had any 2nd or 3rd cousin matches ...with links you can't identify ..yet ?

many people have locked trees you can't tell who they match .

Thank you for your reply. The closest matches point to being 3rd cousin matches and all show up links to two areas of my maternal side.Luckily, most of the matches seem to have a tree to view which has enabled me to check things out to spot our links. There are a couple of private trees and a couple of folk who have no tree so I am waiting to see what might come from that contact. My puzzlement was that no paternal link jumped out at me but I was overwhelmed by maternal links. The number of matches sounded high to me and whilst not expecting an equal mix I did at least expect to find something paternal no matter how small.I now realise that my hopes were too high though and much more research is needed.You have helped me though as I wasn't aware that there were tools to refine searches as you have mentioned and will now study up on that aspect as it will be something to definitely try out.It's my usual pattern to learn about a topic before dipping my toe in the water but the gift of an Ancestry DNA kit came as a surprise to me and it looks as though my brief studying whilst waiting for my results wasn't anywhere good enough. It seems that I have a lot to learn as yet and hope that my journey might lead to me finding my elusive paternal links along the way.Thanks again.

Someone(possibly me!)is missing the point here. To get the DNA male ancestors you need to take a Y chromosome test. Only s male can do this. A woman needs to ask her brother or father to take the test.

You are right that only males have a Y chromosome but autosomal tests such as Ancestry test chromosomes 1-22, not the X and Y chromosomes which determine gender. An autosomal test stands an equal chance of finding matches on the maternal or paternal side, if other people from those lines have also tested. Sometimes the results seem to be very skewed to one side or the other, this can be down to small families so fewer descendants to test, or lack of interest in FH/DNA.

RedRoger, don't think that is correct as each of us inherits 50% of our dna from our mother and 50% from our father so ancestry dna matches should show potential matches from our father's side even if neither of us are male - that is certainly my experience.

Red roger there are different types of tests ...you cant do a paternal one if you are a woman or dont have any males to test in your family .

We are talking about the test done by ancestry which shows all links .

Testing via mothers only is the way they used to trace richard 3rds descendants cos cant be sure of the accuracy of the records about who was real father but a mothers baby is usually her own ....except in cases of adoptions baby trafficking and switched at birth in hospitals

My son who lives in USA did a DNA test last year and had 2 3/4th cousin matches. One didn't respond to his email, but the other one did and the names she had in her tree bore no resemblance to any in my tree. According to my family tree program (Legacy) I have 3573 individuals and 1008 families in my tree, so you would have thought there would be at least one name that matched the ones the American woman gave to my son.

My husband and I have just done our DNA tests (courtesy of a Christmas gift from our son in USA) so it will be interesting to see if we have a match with our son in USA. I think he did an Ancestry test, whereas the ones he bought for us are 23andme, so it's possible we won't have a match.

One thing I've noticed is some branches seem to have many more connections than others. My grandmother of Irish descent has many more close matches on Ancestry than my grandmother from Bedfordshire does. All the matches I've been able to confirm on the Irish side are via cousins who emigrated to America, which is where a large proportion of Ancestry's database live. Emigration from Bedfordshire is by comparison far less prevalent, and the matches I have on that side tend to be people still in the UK, who I suspect comprise a much smaller proportion of Ancestry's database.Regards Richard

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